Next year’s 21-race Formula 1 calendar, along with a handful of 2019 rule changes, have been signed off by F1’s governing body, the FIA, following a meeting of its World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) on Friday.

For the third time in history, the world championship will be contested over a record 21 Grands Prix, equalling the total held in 2016 and 2018. Eleven of the 21 will take place in Europe, five in Asia, four in the Americas and one in Australia.

The 2019 season will begin on March 17th in Australia and finish on December 1 in Abu Dhabi. In between those – in China on April 14th – Formula 1 will celebrate the 1000th Grand Prix since its inception in 1950.

New rules for ’19 and beyond

The WMSC also approved a number of changes to the 2019 F1 Sporting Regulations including:

Changes to the Safety Car regulations to ensure there is a consistent point at which drivers may overtake when the Safety Car returns to the pits. This will now be the same in all three types of restart.

The teams will now be responsible for initial scrutineering of their cars. Before the cars go on track for the first time, teams must declare conformity with all safety related matters.

The official end-of-race signal will now be a chequered light panel, although the chequered flag will still be shown.

For 2020, the team personnel curfew – the amount of time for which all team personnel must be away from the track overnight – will increase from eight to nine hours.

And Formula 1 Strategy Group and Commission proposals concerning the 2019 Technical Regulations were agreed, including:

Changes to the mirror regulations and also associated rear wing changes (height) for rear view visibility and safety.

The on-board camera regulations will be modified to improve the TV spectacle.

Rear endplate lights are to be added for safety.

Minor modifications to the halo fairing are to be made for safety reasons during a potential driver extraction.